Pharmacy

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The Research Question

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• You cannot conduct an effective search without a well formulated question.

• Think about the concepts within your research question.

• Identify and list the keywords and their synonyms that identify the concepts.

• Consider the ‘level of evidence’ to be sought – the research methodologies that will help eliminate bias.

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Developing a search strategy: Concept mapping

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1. Break the research question down into conceptsFor example:

Should pharmacists administer vaccinations? Discuss

Concept 1 Concept 2Pharmacists Vaccinations

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Developing a search strategy: Concept mapping

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2. Identify for each facet:

• Synonyms• Spelling variants• Subject headings

Concept 1 Concept 2Pharmacists Vaccinations

Community Pharmacy Services

Immunisations

Immunizations

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Useful search tips

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• Terminology: If you are not sure of the terminology, use related text books or Google to gather a basic understanding of your topic.

• Spelling variations: replace letters with ? to retrieve words with variable spelling, such as immunization or immunisation

Use ? – immuni?ation

• Truncation: replace word endings with the truncation symbol to retrieve words such as vaccinate, vaccination and vaccinations.

Use * - vaccinat*

•Phrase searching: place quotation marks around common phrases to retrieve records with a specific phrase. For example

Use – “community pharmacy services”

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Linking terms: BOOLEAN operators

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• AND retrieves records contacting both of two terms:

Pharmacists AND Vaccinations

• OR retrieves records containing any of the terms (OR retrieves more records):

Pharmacists OR Community pharmacy services

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Example of a completed Concept Map

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Concept 1 Concept 2

Pharma*

OR

“Community pharmacy services”

Vaccinat*

OR

Immuni?tion*

AND

OR

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Levels of Evidence (publication type)

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Databases

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• Electronic indexes that help you identify journal articles in your research area

• NO single database indexes every journal possible in a subject area – only those that match their selection criteria

• Efficient, effective and less biased searching therefore requires multiple database searching

• Select by database name or by subject area under the DATABASE tab from the Library home page.

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Types of databases

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• Citation databases:Entries have the citation, subject headings and often an abstract, often they will link to full text. Example CINAHL and Medline

• Full text databases: Entries have the citation and abstract and in most cases the full text of an article. Examples: Health, & Medical Complete (Proquest), Informit Health

• Pre-appraised evidence databases:- The Cochrane Library is a multi-database resources which varies in output. For example the Cochrane Database for Systematic reviews contains complete systematic reviews- BMJ Best Practice incorporates Clinical Evidence which summarises the current state of knowledge and uncertainty about the prevention and treatment of clinical conditions, based on thorough searches and appraisal of the literature. Database for Systematic reviews contains complete systematic reviews

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Systematic searching

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• Systematic searches are a combination of using the terminology of the database (Subject Headings) combined with the free text or keyword searching (alternate terms encountered in the literature).

• While there may be some overlap, you will also find many different articles when using both ways of searching for the same concept.

• Comprehensive systematic searching requires subject heading and keyword searching.

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Systematic searching : Why use both methods?

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Controlled Vocabulary (Subject Searching) Keyword Searching

Medline and CINAHL (amongst others) are indexed by subject experts who assign a subject heading that best describes the article. These subject headings are from a fixed list of terms that are arranged in a hierarchical structure that show the relationships between terms. This allows searching at various levels of specificity.

Words not taken from a specific list. Can use words that you would normally use when searching. Need to account for variations for spelling, terminology & clinical descriptions.

More efficient and precise way of searching where you retrieve on those records which list the subject heading for your concept.

Broader way of searching where you will retrieve records which mention your keywords but may or may not be specifically about your concept.

Searches only the subject field. Searches words used by the author in other fields such as the title or abstract.

Provides consistency in the description of the content of the articles

Useful when searching for a specific term or phrase when there is not an appropriate subject heading.

Do not need to think of synonyms for your topic. Useful for searching topics that use new concepts or terminology (subject headings take a while to be developed).

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Database aids:Controlled vocabulary & scope notes

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• Subject Headings (Controlled vocabulary or Thesauri): used to overcome differences in individual authors’ use of terminology.

• Scope note: describes how the term is used in the database, the ‘scope’ of the term; the history of the indexing.

• Explode: To explode a term means to include narrower terms for that subject heading.

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Decreasing or Increasing your results

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• Decrease results by using limits. Choose limits according to your search criteria. For example: limit by population, study type or date.

• Increase your results by using another keyword, or a broader search term. Remove the least important concept, or try another database.

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Further tracking

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• If you find an article that is ideal for your assignment, check the reference list to see cited articles.

• Use Google Scholar to forward track by searching for the article title and checking Cited by and Related articles.

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Google Scholarscholar.google.com

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• Search scholarly literature for articles, theses, books, abstracts, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites across the world of scholarly research.

• You can access items held in the Library through Google Scholar. See instructions

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Search results – finding the full text.

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• Some databases will have a Full Text finder icon or pdf link

• If not, search the title of the journal via the Journal tab on the library home page and follow the links to the full text

• If not held by the Library, request the article via Document Delivery

Thank you

Jill StokesSenior Learning Advisor (Library)Science, Health and EngineeringCurricular Services

Library | La Trobe University | Bendigo 3550

T: 03 5444 7395| E: j.stokes@latrobe.edu.au | W: www.latrobe.edu.au/library

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